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Putin announces Russia will pull most of its military from Syria Putin announces Russia will pull most of its military from Syria
(about 3 hours later)
MOSCOW — President Vladimir Putin announced Monday that Russia would begin withdrawing its military from Syria, potentially winding down nearly six months of airstrikes that have bolstered Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and dealt a grave blow to Syrian rebels. MOSCOW — President Vladimir Putin announced Monday that Russia would begin withdrawing the “main part” of its military from Syria, a surprise potential end to a six-month intervention that bolstered Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and dealt a grave blow to Syrian rebels.
Putin said late Monday that Russia would withdraw the “main part” of the military deployment to Syria, starting Tuesday. The decision came as U.N.-brokered peace talks between the Assad government and rebel representatives got underway in Geneva. The planned Tuesday start of the withdrawal coincides with the five-year anniversary of the beginning of street protests in Syria, an initially peaceful movement that was brutally crushed by Assad forces.
“I hope that today’s decision will be a good signal for all parties to the conflict,” Putin said in a meeting with top deputies that was broadcast on Russian state television late Monday. “I hope that this will considerably increase the level of trust between all parties of the Syrian settlement and will contribute to a peaceful resolution of the Syrian issue.” Through it all, Russia has backed Assad. But Monday’s decision may intensify pressure on the Syrian government to strike a deal with rebel groups in Geneva. Talks resumed there Monday after breaking down a month ago because the rebels were suffering such heavy losses in their surrounded stronghold of Aleppo. A shaky cease-fire has quelled fighting in Syria since late February, but Assad’s forces have continued an assault on their rivals.
“I hope that this will considerably increase the level of trust between all parties of the Syrian settlement and will contribute to a peaceful resolution of the Syrian issue,” Putin said in a meeting with his top deputies that was broadcast on Russian state television late Monday. In a separate phone call with Assad, Putin said the intervention had “radically changed the situation” on the ground, according to the Kremlin.
[How the Syrian revolt went so horribly, tragically wrong][How the Syrian revolt went so horribly, tragically wrong]
Putin said Russia would keep open both Russian air force and naval bases in Syria, but he said the task of the Russian intervention has been achieved and that diplomacy should now take over. A shaky cease-fire has quelled fighting in Syria, although it has not fully stopped. Putin said that Russia would keep open the Russian air force and naval bases in Syria but that the task of the Russian intervention had been achieved and diplomacy should now take over.
The surprise announcement came as U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura reconvened peace talks between the Assad government and the opposition in Geneva on Monday. The decision appeared at least in part to have the effect of increasing pressure on Assad to reach a diplomatic resolution of the conflict. The Obama administration was taken by surprise by the announcement, which the White House said President Obama later “discussed” with Putin in a telephone call that had been previously scheduled to talk about implementation of the cease-fire.
The Kremlin said Putin spoke to Assad by telephone on Monday to inform him of his decision. Putin made the decision unilaterally, without any such request from Assad, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said — a pointed message that suggested Putin is trying to signal that its backing for Syria is not unlimited. Putin made the decision unilaterally, without any such request from Assad, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. It was a pointed message suggesting that Russia’s support for Assad is not unlimited, now that he is unlikely to be deposed by force.
“The leaders noted that the action of the air force of Russia had radically changed the situation in the fight against terrorism, disrupting the fighters’ infrastructure and inflicting significant damage,” the Kremlin said in a statement. It was not immediately clear whether the announcement meant a full end to all Russian airstrikes in Syria. The Kremlin spokesman said that Russia did not believe that issues with “terrorists” — the term Russia generally uses for all of Assad’s opposition — had been solved and that Russia intends to maintain a presence on the ground. Previous Russian announcements about peaceful intentions in Syria have been met with skepticism by Western nations.
[Syria peace talks open in Geneva with no ‘plan B’ on table] After Assad appeared weakened and on the verge of defeat over the summer, the Russian intervention inverted the course of the conflict, paving the way with airstrikes for Assad’s ground forces. By February, shortly before the cease-fire went into effect, dozens of Russian bombers and jet fighters were often flying more than 60 sorties a day, according to Russia’s Defense Ministry, enabling major territorial gains by regime forces. Although Russian leaders said they were targeting the Islamic State and other “terrorists,” U.S. officials and rebels said the bulk of the airstrikes were being conducted against other rebel forces battling Assad, some of which were supported by the United States.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that during the Russian airstrike campaign, Syrian forces had been able to recapture 400 populated areas over nearly 4,000 square miles of territory. The Russian intervention turned the course of the conflict after Assad appeared weakened and on the verge of defeat over the summer. By February, the Syrian army was surging forward and had nearly encircled the rebel bastion of Aleppo. The mission was Russia’s first overseas combat deployment since the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union, a major test for a military that in 2008 seemed stretched to the breaking point by a brief war in neighboring Georgia. Russia has sought to use the increased clout to play a bigger role at the negotiating table and to break through the international isolation that had settled on it after its 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula.
The Obama administration had become increasingly frustrated in recent days over what it saw as Russia’s inability or unwillingness to press Syrian government forces to adhere to the cease-fire there. Officials cited an overall decrease in violence of 80 to 90 percent, including a virtual halt to Russian airstrikes in opposition areas. To the extent that military operations are continuing, officials said, nearly all have been conducted by the Syrian military and its Iranian and Hezbollah allies. Five years ago, few Syrians would have ever imagined that their uprising against their leader — a peaceful Arab Spring revolt — would turn into a violent proxy war for regional actors.
Late last week, the administration decided to publicly accuse Moscow of failing to rein in Assad, leading to a string of comments by officials that culminated in a call by Secretary of State John F. Kerry on Sunday for Putin to take control of Russia’s Syrian ally. On March 15, 2011, Syrians took to the streets in Damascus for unarmed rallies that would spread like wildfire across the country and eventually be met with utter brutality by Assad’s security apparatus. Most Syrians back then would not have expected that the Islamic State and al-Qaeda-affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra would hijack their revolt and later provide the pretext for the Russian intervention.
[Cease-fire goes into effect in Syria] For the first three months of the intervention, analysts and officials reported modest gains, as doubts about the battered Syrian army and other militias loyal to Assad persisted. But in January, a Syrian offensive began scoring major victories, cutting off supply lines from Turkey and threatening Aleppo.
By signing on to the international agreement backing a cease-fire, he said, Russia and Iran “accepted responsibility for the forces that they control or influence. . . . So President Putin, who is invested in supporting Assad . . . should be somewhat concerned” by the actions of Syrian forces. After helping broker the late February cease-fire, Russia pledged that it would push Assad forces to adhere to the deal.
Putin’s announcement appeared to take the administration by surprise. Asked during Monday’s regular State Department briefing about the news from Russia, spokesman John F. Kirby said it was the first he had heard of the announcement.
The Obama administration has at times complained of a gap between Russia’s rhetoric and its actions on the ground in Syria, and it was not immediately clear on which side of the field Monday’s announcement would fall.
Putin announced at the end of September that the Russian intervention would focus on combating the Islamic State. The Obama administration soon said that the bulk of the airstrikes were being conducted against other rebel forces battling Assad, some of which were supported by the United States. But Russian forces have generally adhered to the cease-fire, which went into effect in late February.
If the Russian air mission pulls out, it would cut short an intervention that from the beginning had kept the Obama administration and its partners off balance.
[Obama thinks his Syria strategy is right — and folks just don’t get it][Obama thinks his Syria strategy is right — and folks just don’t get it]
Early in September, U.S. officials reported that several dozen Russian bombers and jet fighters, as well as at least 16 helicopters, had gathered at an air base in northwestern Syria. On the morning of Sept. 30, Russia’s lower house of parliament quickly passed a resolution authorizing the use of air power against targets in Syria. The bombings began later that day. The administration had become increasingly frustrated in recent days over what it saw as Russia’s inability or unwillingness to press Syrian government forces to adhere to the cease-fire. In his call to Putin, the White House said, Obama welcomed the overall reduction in violence but “stressed that continuing offensive actions by Syrian regime forces risk undermining” both the truce and the political negotiations.
Initially, Russian jets were flying just several dozen sorties each day. But the intensity of the bombing increased during the campaign. By February, shortly before the cease-fire took effect, Russia’s Defense Ministry often reported that it was carrying out more than 60 or even 70 sorties a day. Late last week, the administration decided to publicly accuse Moscow of failing to rein in Assad, leading to a string of comments by officials including Secretary of State John F. Kerry, who on Sunday called on Putin to take control of Russia’s Syrian ally.
Russia also began using the Syrian crisis as a testing ground for high-tech weapons, going so far as to shift its budget for weapons tests to the Syrian campaign. In October, just a week after the beginning of its bombing campaign, Russia launched 26 cruise missiles from ships in the Caspian Sea at targets in Syria more than 900 miles away. The missiles traversed Iran and Iraq before striking the targets in Syria. The Pentagon said several crashed before reaching Syria. It was the first time Russia had fired the new Kalibr cruise missile in a combat mission. By signing on to the international agreement backing a cease-fire, he said, Russia and Iran “accepted responsibility for the forces that they control or influence. . . . So President Putin, who is invested in supporting Assad . . . should be somewhat concerned” by the actions of Syrian forces.
For the first three months, analysts and officials reported modest gains, as doubts about the battered Syrian army and other militias loyal to Assad persisted. But in January, a Syrian offensive began scoring major victories, cutting off supply lines from Turkey and threatening the rebel stronghold of Aleppo. “We felt it was important, going into these talks, to make it clear that we weren’t blind to these violations, that they mattered, and that they really needed to stop,” a U.S. official said Monday.
Karen DeYoung in Washington and Andrew Roth in Moscow contributed to this report. Russian analysts said the announcement may be intended to press Assad at the talks after saving him on the ground.
As Assad representatives take a hard line in the talks, “I think that Russia is really not interested to fully take the responsibility for this behavior,” said Fyodor Lukyanov, a well-connected political analyst in Moscow who is the editor of Russia in Global Affairs.
It was unclear what effect the pullout would have on the negotiations. The U.N. envoy charged with the talks, Staffan de Mistura, told journalists ahead of Putin’s move that “the only Plan B available is the return to war, and to an even worse war than we had so far.”
Syrian opposition leaders on Monday offered cautious praise of the pullout decision.
“For us, it’s important to see actions instead of hearing words,” said Salem al-Muslet, a spokesman for the main opposition group, the High Negotiations Committee. “If this decision actually removes all Russian troops from Syria, then this will be a positive step.”
Naylor reported from Geneva. Karen DeYoung in Washington and Andrew Roth in Moscow contributed to this report.
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